A Precursor to Cloud
by Mossberg
Summary: What leads up to Cloud's identity. Read and review, please. I appreciate everyone who's reviewed up to now, thank you. Chapter 4 uploaded.
1. Best Friends

_Best Friends – A Precursor to Cloud_

By Jesse Schiff

"Damnit Cloud, they're after us!" Zack carried his nearly unconscious friend up the hill, as gunfire came from below them. Several pufts of dust spurted up at their feet.

"You stay here, I'll be back." Zack told Cloud, dropping him from his shoulder. He quickly unclipped his Buster Sword from over his back and ran down the hill toward the Shinra troops.

Cloud warily lifted his head, not knowing where he was. The world seemed to be dimming and growing brighter at the same time, like someone was messing with the lights. He could hear something like machine-gun fire from down below… wherever he was. He then let his face fall back into the dirt and rock, too nauseas and weak to keep it up. Suddenly someone was above him, shaking his shoulder.

"Hey Cloud! You alright, man? You didn't get-" Zack was cut down mid-sentence, as a single rifle bullet hit him square in the chest. It knocked him off his feet, and back about three yards from his comatose friend. 

Zack was still holding his sword, though he was knocked almost unconscious. He tried to call out to Cloud, but he gurgled as blood began to flood into his lungs. He couldn't move, not even as he tried to lift up his sword, nothing. Several soldiers dressed in blue walked up and blocked the sunlight over him. Zack recognized as a man in a red cap with the Shinra insignia embroidered onto it stepped up to his feet. He painfully raised his head, trying to find his killer among the group as the one with the red cap said,

"Do it."

The blue soldiers fired their automatic rifles, two shots connecting into Zack's head and killing him instantly. They kept firing anyway, riddling his upper-body. The red-capped officer told the soldiers to stop. They lifted their smoking rifles and looked up from their dirty work. One looked down to the blonde-haired body about ten feet down the slope of the hill, and held his rifle down on him. 

"What about this one?" The blue soldier asked.

The red-captain looked down to the pathetic invalid. He stepped down the slope and stopped, kicking the stretched out body right in the ribs. It gave no response.

"…Forget it. Just leave 'im."

*-*-*~*-*-*

Cloud came to with so much pain in his head. Zack was standing over him. 

"Hey, man wake up already. We gotta jet out of here." The black-haired SOLDIER grabbed Cloud around the shoulder and lifted him up. Cloud's head fell down to his chest, as he could barely make out what was going on or who he was. 

Zack had knocked out the security guard that was watching them in those test tubes. He'd punched the guy in the face and then walloped him across the room, spilling the plate of food the guard had been offering to the weakened Zack. At least he thought Zack was weak, which was wrong. Both he and Cloud had been trapped in two big glass chambers that glew a fluorescent green. He remembered it had taken place after all of Nibelheim had been burned to the ground by Sephiroth. 

"Fuckin' bastard…" Zack muttered as he heaved Cloud up higher and began to help him out of the lab at the front of that moldy old library. 

After Sephiroth had gone berserk, everything else was pretty much a haze to Zack. All he knew was Cloud was still here with him, though he seemed pretty out of it. He'd noticed when he'd let Cloud out of the test chamber, a heavy white mist had been released from his tube. It smelled strongly of some mineral, almost like lime and metal. He figured they must have been dousing Cloud in Mako and injecting him with something else, as he noticed both he and Cloud had an IV needle still taped to their arms. Zack ripped his off, and looked down to Cloud,

"Come on, man. Let's go already." And he heaved Cloud out of the mansion laboratory. They'd been kept in Nibelheim the entire time, in the basement of the Shinra mansion there… the only building that hadn't been destroyed in the fire. 

As Zack nearly dragged his friend out of the mansion, he noticed something frightening. Nibelheim was perfectly normal; not a house had been damaged. 

"What the hell!" Zack yelled as he looked beyond the mansion gates at the town. Everything was the same as before the fire.

He heaved Cloud through the dirt and cobble stone road going out of the town, still bewildered. Not a familiar face greeted Zack, in fact he saw no one as he carried his friend through Nibelheim. This was Cloud's hometown, but he had seen it being burned to the ground by Sephiroth! Had everything been rebuilt already? How long had he and Cloud been locked up in that lab? He brushed off the thought as he slowly carried his friend through of the old town gate's arch.

Cloud's consciousness slowly faded in, as he felt himself on a shaky surface and the sound of wind was faintly in his ears. Suddenly there was a backfire behind him and he was shook. 

"Hey, man! Look here!" Zack called, seeing Cloud's head finally beginning to move again. "Put this on." Zack was pulling on old SOLDIER type uniform over Cloud's shoulders. "Don't complain though, it smells a little."

Zack slapped Cloud's back and laid him back against the door of the truck again. Cloud laid his head back, one eye closed and one half-opened. Zack smiled, standing up almost to look down at his friend. 

"You look pretty good there. It fits you."

There was the sound of a backfire again from the muffler of the truck. Zack looked to the front and banged on the window,

"Old guy! Yo! My friend is trying to get some rest back here!"

"Shattap! You are lucky I even agreed to give you a ride!" The driver yelled, eyeing Zack through the rearview. He scowled and spat out his window, looking back to the road. Zack sucked his teeth and smirked, looking back down to Cloud. 

"You know where we're goin', buddy?" He asked. Cloud's head slowly bobbed up and down, like he was drunk. "Midgar!" He said enthusiastically, and feebly waited for a response from Cloud. 

Zack realized after a moment, and looked out to the humongous orange rock formations out across the seeming desert road they were on. The sky was blue and brilliant, white clouds stretched as far as the horizon reached. He took in a breath of the air, and sat down next to Cloud. 

"It's beautiful." He said, pausing afterward. He didn't know how to reach Cloud, to get through to the guy. "What're you gonna do when we get to Midgar?" He asked his friend. Cloud's head rolled down, his chin touching his chest. He didn't respond. Zack slowly stood, looking out at the scenery again. 

"I know what I'm doing, man. There's this girl I know, I can crash with her for a while. Well… except her mother lives there…" His voice seemed to trail off, but just as it did he continued again, "Guess that's out then…" He said, folding his arms and brushing his chin. 

"Well then! I gotta change my plans… and no matter what I do, I need some money first." He stopped again, concentrating out at the passing landscape and the dust trail the truck was leaving behind them. "Cloud, you know we are only good for fighting…"

Suddenly the old driver banged on the window between them,

"You're still young ain't ya?" He yelled from the diver seat and over the wind.  "You kids gotta try everything! Pay your debts while you're still young, that's what I'm tellin' ya to do. Go out there and look for what you really want." The old driver offered. 

Zack pondered this… though he didn't really take it all seriously. He looked back down at Cloud,

"Try everything, huh? That's pretty easy for him to say." He squatted down in front of Cloud, his elbows rested on his knees. "Fighting's the only thing we're good at, man. I'm gonna do the only thing that I can, I'm gonna be a mercenary. You know what I mean, Cloud?" Zack said quietly. He turned his head back to the driver and yelled,

"Thanks, pops!" 

"Did you even hear what I said?" The old driver mumbled to himself, knowing that kid would only get himself into trouble.

Zack looked back to Cloud, staring at him. "So what are you gonna do? You gonna be a mercenary too? We will make a lot of money, man."

Cloud's head raised back and against the rim of the backdoor he was leaning against. He let out a confused moan, looking about at the bright orange and patches of green of the landscape. He looked to Zack, still moaning a little under his breath, and set his chin down against his chest again. Zack sat down next to him, touching Cloud's arm,

"I understand, man. I mean… we're friends, right?" He stared at Cloud, who let out another small moan under his breath and shrugged against Zack's hand on his arm. Zack smirked at that.

"You and me. Mercenaries. You and me, Cloud. That's what we're gonna be." Zack said, nudging him. "You understand?" He asked, knowing Cloud wouldn't really answer him. "Ah, it's ok if you don't. We're gonna be alright, man. We're gonna be alright."


	2. Traces of Childhood

_Traces of Childhood_

"You see the headlines in the Shinra Times?" The middle-aged man in the faded burgundy suit asked.

"What about them?" Cloud asked back, looking out the window past the old drone.

"Oh. Oh… that group of terrorists bombed the No. 1 Reactor. What a day it is these days." The man said, hoping Cloud liked his little play on words.

            Of course, Cloud had his arms up on the overhead rail. He was staring out the window at the passing blacks and greens of the decaying city. Either he was ignoring the man or was in another realm entirely. The man looked down dejectedly. Just another person who wouldn't speak to him on the train-ride back to the apartment. Oh… the lonely train-ride back to the apartment. The man sighed and said something absent-mindedly,          

            "People aren't who they let on to be these days…"

            Cloud's face immediately came back to life. He looked down to the old drone and grabbed him by the collar. He jerked the man forward onto the floor and shoved him back against the door of the train car.

            "What do you mean I'm not who I let on? Who the hell are you, you old bastard?"

            "No-nothing! I mean, I'm nobody! I was just thinking aloud, that's all! I wasn't talking about you- I mean… I wasn't talking about you yourself!"

            "You looking for a fight, that why you talk so much? Huh?" 

            "No! I'm not! Please, I don't want to fight! Please…"

            Cloud could see the man was holding back a floodgate of tears. Obviously he was a wimp of some kind… maybe an accountant. Someone who sat in a cubicle or at a desk all day, making just enough money to keep himself clothed a little better than all the other ants and bees. Maybe he'd ratted on a few of his colleagues and gotten a promotion. He was dressed pretty good for a guy riding the train to the slums. 

All of a sudden corporate Shinra was making Cloud sick, and he let go of the man. Cloud used to think he would make it big in Midgar. All that shit he'd put in his own head… thinking a SOLDIER could do anything they wanted.

            Cloud walked back to the group, AVALANCHE. None of them other than Barret wanted to make eye contact with him. Barret was actually giving Cloud something other than a scowl, but he still thought the spiky-headed kid was an arrogant punk.   
"Nice to see you can slap around a wimp like that. You being a so-called mercenary and all. As I was saying… this mission was a success. But don't get lazy now!" 

Barret's talking again, Cloud thought. His mind wandered into that familiar dazed region somewhere in the back. He thought about the old drone's words again, though subconsciously. The guy had attacked some part of Cloud, and it wasn't cause he was some Shinra accountant or data cruncher or whatever. Cloud didn't really have any bone to pick with Shinra like these AVALANCHE guys did. The company just aggravated him. What they'd done to this city was a disgrace. Everything was pretty shitty, and Shinra was making a huge profit with all this shittiness being the byproduct. But that wasn't why he was upset. The accountant guy had accused Cloud of not being good enough, he thought. Was that why he got so pissed… or was it something else? 

Now, Cloud drifted back as Barret finished whatever it was he was talking about…  

            "Meet back at the hideout!! Move out!"

            "Something wrong Cloud?" Tifa asked, her elbows down on the bartop.

            "Nope."

            "Welcome home." She said smiling, though she seemed tired. She turned and pulled the cloth from her belt, going back to wiping down glasses. 

            "You fought with Barret today."

            "Yeah, sure did."

            "I should've known. He's always bossing people around, and you've always been in fights ever since you were little."

~*~*~*~*~

"Hey spiky-head!" One little kid sneered as seven year-old Cloud walked past. "Tifa doesn't like you, so why don't you stop trying to be her boyfriend!"

Seven year-old Cloud stopped, and turned to face the kid. His fists were balled and his face was tense and red. He stepped up to the larger boy, and lunged at him-

Cloud sat on top of the roof over the well, tears dried on his dirty cheeks as he kept licking his cracked lip and sniffing his bloody nose. That big kid thought he was so tough being the leader of everyone else… Cloud hated him. Tifa came up behind Cloud, slowly.

"Hey Cloud. Sorry I'm late." She said, coming to sit down not too close, but still wanting to be next to him… she sat beside the well and under his feet. "You said you wanted to talk to me about something?" 

"Tifa… I'm going away in Spring."

"All the boys are going away…"

"I'm going to Midgar." Cloud said, pausing afterward for a few moments, which Tifa used to look up at him. "I want to join SOLDIER… I want to be the best out of everyone, like Sephiroth." He finished, sounding complacent.

"Sephiroth… the Great Sephiroth." Tifa said, dangling her legs a bit on the edge of her space against the well. Cloud stood up, looking up at the stars.

"Isn't it really hard to join SOLDIER?" Tifa asked, looking back up to Cloud. He stayed silent for a while.

"…I won't be able to come back for a long time." 

"Will you be in the newspapers?" Tifa asked.

"I just saw a shooting star…"

"Cloud?"

"What?"

"Will you make me a promise?"

"About what?"

"If you ever get famous and powerful… and I'm ever in a bind… will you promise to come rescue me?" Tifa said with a smile, though Cloud couldn't see. He remained silent again.

"Cloud?"

"I promise."

"Just like that?"

"I said I promise."

"You'll be my hero, you'll come save me if I get in trouble. I've always wanted to experience that. It'll be…" Tifa slowly trailed off and held her knees up to her chest. She leaned back against the well and looked up.

"Cloud…" She said dreamily… but he didn't reply. "Cloud?" She asked and stood. Tifa jumped up to see if he was still on the roof of the well, but he wasn't. Going around the well, she saw him walking back down the path… his hands in his pockets.

~*~*~*~*~

            Tifa still remembered that night, even as she was staring at Cloud looking down at his empty glass. She felt so bad for him, he'd always seemed like he tried to fit in back in Nibelheim. It was something she only noticed in the last days he'd spent there. In fact… she'd never really paid him much attention until those last days, which was only because he'd been the one to start talking to her. 

            Cloud stared down in his glass, down at the last brown drop of whiskey. He too was thinking back to Nibelheim and how he'd had all those feelings toward Tifa. She was the most beautiful girl in town… but Godamnit! All those times he'd tried to crawl into her group of friends only to be ignored or thrown away. He didn't know how fit in with them, how to be friends. In fact… he'd never really had any friends growing up. Fights replaced trying to make friends. He'd had lots of fights, over nothing. 

            That wasn't true. He always fought because people were so stupid. They never gave him a chance… they were never nice. Cloud hated those kids, and hated that they were always stronger than him and better than him and never let him get close. If he couldn't be their friends, he'd clobber them and prove he was stronger. That was why he joined SOLDIER, because he wanted to be strong. He wanted to show himself and everyone back home that he was tough. God… he was so stupid. 

            "What's on your mind?" Tifa asked. 

            "My pay. Once I get it I'm outta here, Tifa." Cloud said, looking off to the side. 

            "Oh, Cloud. Why do you always act like this?"

            "Like what?"

            "Barret will give you your money." Tifa said, and walked out from behind the bar toward the open trap door near the pinball machine in the corner. It always hurt her how Cloud never said what was on his mind. He always tried to act like he didn't care… she didn't know why she always gave him so much thought... 


	3. The Incident

A Precursor to Cloud

By Jesse Schiff

-

The Incident 

Zack hung, eyes open, stuck to the ceiling above the Mako stasis pods. He'd been slashed across the mid-section and was currently hanging by one leg from a crevice within the Nibel Reactor. A drop of blood fell from his fingertip down to the bare blade of his Bustersword on the ground. 

At the bottom of the stone and metal stairs was Tifa, all sprawled out. Her chest slowly heaved up and down, and her eyes strained to stay open. She'd been slashed like Zack- a deep wound that ran diagonally from between her breasts down to her navel. Even in all this pain, she could not give in and close her eyes. Suddenly arms were under her and she was being lifted up the stairs. Someone was carrying her, someone who could only be made out blurrily as a Shinra soldier with an orange mask. The soldier laid her down at the top of the stairs, careful to lay her straight. He removed his mask, and his head was obscured by tears. All that could be made was a streak of blonde hair, disheveled and spiked in every direction much like someone Tifa hadn't seen for almost four years. 

"We're finally together… mother." Sephiroth whispered to the dead woman with metal tubes pouring from her limbs and back. She only stared forward with one white eye open. "Together… we'll finally kill the ones that killed you… and the Cetra. We'll return earth to ourselves… the way it was." He touched her cold cheek with his fingertips. "I never knew you…"

"Sephiroth!" Someone screamed. Sephiroth turned around felt something metal slash him across the torso. There was a brilliant spray of blood across the ceiling of the white chamber, and a moment of silence followed as Sephiroth staggered forward. Cloud held the Bustersword at his side and watched as his former idol limped out of the room, blood slowly spilling and melting the frost on the floor. 

"Sephiroth…" 

The man in black slowly stopped, his six-foot Masamune sword drawn this time. Cloud wanted to wait for him to turn, his grip growing steadily tighter on the hilt of his sword. The two were standing on a metal beam, surrounded by the clockwork of the reactor. Below them was an unfathomable drop. 

"Do you know what you've done?" Cloud asked.

"Are you one of the failures?"

"You don't even know my name!" Cloud yelled, and ran in with his sword raised above his head to cut Sephiroth in two. But as soon as he had stepped forward, it was too late. Sephiroth turned and thrust the Masamune forward, covering the gap between them. Cloud was run through, and he gasped, dropping his sword. Sephiroth could not help but grin, for madness' sake out of anything else. 

"Everyone I've killed is just a part of the Planet." He said, pushing the blade deeper into Cloud's stomach. "There are no names to remember."

Cloud's face suddenly lost its expression of pain. Sephiroth's grin began to fade. Cloud gripped the sword by both sides, and suddenly Sephiroth was fighting a downhill battle as Cloud slowly pulled the blade out of his stomach. 

"What?!" Sephiroth shouted. Suddenly he was in the air, holding onto the hilt of the Masamune with all his strength. "This can't be real!" He yelled. 

Cloud flung Sephiroth off the platform, and he fell into the misty pit below. Cloud stared down in amazement at his own strength, unable to believe he'd just done that. It was unreal. 

Then he remembered Tifa was dying. Cloud quickly turned to walk back and find her again, but his strength was already gone. He fell after only a couple of steps, and passed out. 

Standing over the body of the "failure", Hojo stroked his chin uneasily.

"Where is Sephiroth? You haven't found him yet?" 

"Sir, we can't anything but a trail of blood leading out of Jenova's chamber. We are taking some samples of it back now for analysis. Unless they turn up something I would say he disappeared without a trace." A Red Shinra officer stated, buzzing with ambition. Hojo could tell this one wanted to go places.

"Have the 'failure' sent down to my quarters in the Shinra Mansion for research. I'm sure we'll find something in him. Who is the other one?"

"He's a SOLDIER, his body looks to be recoverable. We're sure his treatment with JENOVA cells should keep him intact long enough until we can recover his vital functions after we put him in Mako therapy." 

"Yes… good."

"Sir, we also have reason to believe there was a third person involved here."

"Sephiroth destroyed an entire village. I'm sure some people followed him up to the reactor to get even. There is no doubt they were destroyed… but question the survivors from Nibelheim anyways. See if they know anything pertaining to Sephiroth's whereabouts. Other than that, get this reactor cleaned up and make sure none of this incident sees the light of day."

"Yes, sir."

"Also, see to it the 'failure' and the SOLDIER are erased from Shinra's records. I hate loose ends."

"Yes… yes, sir!" The Red officer said enthusiastically, clicking his heels together as he saluted Hojo. 

Hojo just turned around and stared down at the abyss beneath him. He thought about Sephiroth, the only experiment of his that mattered. 

***

Cloud came to with so much pain in his head. Zack was standing over him. 

"Hey, man wake up already. We gotta jet out of here." The black-haired SOLDIER grabbed Cloud around the shoulder and lifted him up…


	4. A Phone Call Back to Nibelheim

A Precursor to Cloud 

By Jesse Schiff

-

A Phone Call Back to Nibelheim 

            Now was a time when Cloud was sure of himself. He'd just gotten back from a night on the town with some drinking buddy who's name he couldn't remember. All he remembered was there had been a lot of drinking and running around, a lot. They were celebrating the guy's recent promotion into SOLDIER, and it was just after a parade Cloud had marched in. Things seemed to going perfect that night, it stood out among Cloud's lonely nights since he was a child. 

            In a narrow, dark, and warm corner with a payphone, Cloud fumbled in his pockets searching for coins. He spent a good two minutes with his hands in his pants pockets, grunting because his fingers couldn't scoop up the change. Finally he managed to get two large ones and he immediately pulled his hand out, flinging the coins against the wall. That guy with the spiky black hair laughed as he saw Cloud do this, and watched him bump into the wall as he tried to bend over and pick up the change. 

             "Take off your helmet." He said.

            Cloud mumbled and managed to pull his gray and blue helmet off without unbuckling the back. His face was flushed, and he looked like he took getting these coins very seriously. The guy smirked and walked over to him, his black leather boots by Cloud's red face, which was practically on the floor. 

            "Here, man." He said, leaning down and picking up the coins easily. 

            "Th…thanks." Cloud tried not to slur. The black haired guy handed Cloud the change along with a hand to help his new buddy stand up. 

            "Take it easy there, you're still a kid." The guy said, and patted Cloud on the shoulder. Cloud hugged the payphone terminal, as he felt a little woozy standing up so fast. Then he smiled and told the guy he was alright, he could handle it from here.

            "Alright, man. Hey I'll call you tomorrow. I hear our squad's going on a pretty important mission in a week or two." 

            "Yeah, yeah. Tommorow." Cloud said, waving his hand as he lowered his head against a shoulder. The guy just smirked again and walked off with some flashy looking woman who was laughing. 

            Now he held the coins in one hand and tried inserting them into the little pay slot on the phone terminal. It took him a good minute, but he managed to get them in. The hard part was actually dialing the number, which he failed to do. An operator came on after he'd dialed 0 a few times. 

            "Sir? Would you like to make a phone call?"

            "Yes, phone."

            "What number would you like me to dial for you?"

            Cloud had to repeat the number twice, as the operator couldn't understand him the first time. Then she disconnected and there was a ring tone. Suddenly Cloud's heart was beating a little faster. Someone picked up,

            "Hello?"

            "…"

            "Hello? Come on… who is this?"          

            "H…hi."

            "Who is this?"

            "It's…"

            "Hold on please." The girl stopped Cloud before he could finish, and he heard her talking in the background,

            "No, no dad! The song doesn't go like that!" Her voice was something foreign to him, even though he'd known it for so long. He could hear a piano playing in the background. 

            Suddenly Cloud was looking down at himself. He knew he was drunk. He was drunk and buried away in some seedy back hallway somewhere… somewhere in Junon. He wasn't a SOLDIER like he'd promised her he'd be. He was just some kid no one liked that had grown up to be some guy no one liked. And here he was in the back of some bar in Junon instead of fighting monsters somewhere or saving some town as a SOLDIER. 

            "Sorry! May I ask who this is again?"

            "No… it's noone. Wrong number…"

            "Are you sure?"

            "Wrong… sorry… wrong number…"

            "Ok then, bye." And she hung up. 

            Cloud listened to the buzz of the disconnected signal, and let it linger for a while. 

            "Bye…" He whispered, and missed the receiver as he tried to hang up the phone. He stood up straight and caught his balance momentarily before he felt very, very sick. He left his helmet in the corner by the wall as he stumbled down the dark hallway toward the nearest bathroom. 

            "Gross!" Some woman yelled as Cloud threw up in the sink beside her. He looked up at his reflection and all he could make out was a blurry pale-faced loser with blonde hair. 

            "You fucking idiot." Cloud said at his image, and balled up a fist. The women ran out of the bathroom as he punched the mirror and cracked it all the way to its edges. 

            "And stay out!" The muscle-bound bouncer yelled as he pulled Cloud by his collar out the back door. He swung Cloud against the adjacent wall and walked back inside, shutting the rusted metal door behind him. Cloud slumped against the wall, still feeling sick and now dizzy. He noticed he was wet for some reason. It was raining out.

            "Nice day out." Cloud said to a couple of shifty looking guys coming out of a nearby gambling parlor. It was actually 2 AM. They stopped for a moment, then decided against robbing him. A Shinra soldier might come back looking the next day, so they kept on walking. Cloud looked up as a flash of lightning cracked across the sky. He slowly got to standing after the two guys left.           

            "How the hell do I get home?" Cloud said with a slur, not remembering where he was or how he'd gotten there. 


End file.
